Going for the Simple Life, in the Hills of Indiana

NOT long after they bought a log cabin tucked away on three acres in the hushed, rolling woods outside Nashville, Ind., Doug and Jayne Pillow had a half-acre pond dug on the property. Then they stocked it with 1,500 bass, bluegill and catfish, and invited guests to try their luck.

Not that much luck is needed. “For a kid to catch a fish in two minutes is pretty exciting,” said Mr. Pillow, a certified public accountant from Indianapolis, laughing.

Since buying their three-bedroom, 2,100-square-foot cabin two and a half years ago, the Pillows have bought two adjoining acres, extending their investment to about $300,000.

The Pillows are not looking for much more excitement than the action at the fish pond, and neither are many others who buy second homes around Nashville, a prim town of 873 residents, whose tree-lined main street, Van Buren, has plenty of shops, galleries and ice cream parlors. The Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates that 20,000 people visit the town during a typical fall weekend.

Although it is just 50 miles south of Indianapolis and 18 miles west of Bloomington, the home of Indiana University, Nashville is remote — and quiet. It was a logging hub in the 1800’s, but the trees have grown back and now embrace the town.

Brown County, Ind., of which Nashville is the county seat, is a haven for fishing, hiking, golfing, sledding, bicycling, hunting, horseback riding and bird-watching. And the visitors’ bureau likes to point out that cellphones do not work in many locations.

“Even though we’ve met all our neighbors, there’s not always somebody knocking on your door, stopping by,” said Tom Walterhouse, a purchasing director from northern Indiana who, with his wife, Debbie, bought a three-bedroom log cabin outside Nashville last November for $222,000.

Suzannah Levett Zody, a Brown County native who is the principal broker at Hills O’Brown Realty, said about one-third of the its customers are second-home buyers or are buying land to build second homes.

John and Kathy Kraft, who live two hours away in Lebanon, Ohio, seem to be typical second-home buyers. They used to stay in a cabin in Brown County State Park until they bought an acre two years ago and built a two-bedroom, 1,100-square-foot log cabin. “The older you get, the less you want to be on the road,” said Mr. Kraft, who runs a recreational park in Ohio.

Three county preserves — Brown County State, Yellowwood State Forest and Hoosier National Forest — cover 65 percent of Brown County’s 320 square miles. Land that can be developed, or already is, is usually sold in five-acre plots.

Nashville sits at the intersection of two Indiana state highways — Route 46, which runs west from Columbus toward Bloomington, and the serpentine Route 135, which winds from the north to the south through the tree-lined hills.

Those trees burn with brilliant colors in October, and foliage season draws scores of tourists to the area. “A picture can’t do it justice,” Mr. Pillow said of the foliage.

Mr. Pillow’s skepticism aside, many artists do try to make a picture of Nashville. T. C. Steele, an American Impressionist, moved to town in 1907 because of its beauty and seclusion. Other artists followed suit, and Brown County today bills itself as “the Art Colony of the Midwest.” Dozens of painters live there, and other artists work with glass, textiles, ceramics, wood and even gourds. There are more than 20 art galleries in and around Nashville, including the Brown County Art Guild and Waldron Gallery on the same block of Van Buren Street.

The Indiana University theater and drama department stages plays like “Arms and the Man” and “The Woman in Black” at the Brown County Playhouse from June through October. And Bill Monroe’s Music Park and Campground, five miles north of town, is host to concerts of bluegrass and country music. Mr. Monroe, by the way, made his name in the other Nashville — you know, the one with the Grand Ole Opry.

The Pillow cabin is in the 11-home Turning Tree development two miles north of town, the only development in Nashville. Many homes sit in the woods on dirt or gravel roads and cannot be seen from the road.

Some houses are contemporary, but the abundance of log cabins makes the area stand out. The Walterhouses’ six-year-old cabin was built using reclaimed 200-year-old timber from two cabins in Tennessee and a barn in southern Indiana. “It’s very rustic, but it’s got central air and central heating, and it’s pretty comfortable, too,” said Mr. Walterhouse, whose family makes the three-hour drive from Kendallville, Ind., a couple of weekends a month.

Pros

Nashville’s many outdoor activities are complemented by the plays and the concerts. There are 26 restaurants in Brown County, and only two are chain restaurants, including one lonely McDonald’s at the southern fringe of town. Indiana University basketball and football games are less than half an hour away. And Nashville is accessible. An exit for Interstate 65, which traverses Indiana from northwest to south, is just 15 miles east of town.

Cons

Nashville has only three traffic lights, and the streets and parking lots in town are often crammed on fall foliage weekends. The rest of the year, there is plenty of space, but Ms. Zody said there is such a thing as too much solitude for some second-home buyers. “I could not live there full-time,” Mr. Pillow said of the pace in and around town.

Because permanent and part-time residents have paid a price for privacy, Ms. Zody said, newcomers tend to be left alone until they make the first step toward making acquaintances. Sometimes, she said, newcomers are left alone too much.

The Real Estate Market

Many homes in Brown County, especially small cabins or rustic homes in the woods, are on the market for less than $250,000. A three-bedroom, 10-year-old 1,500-square-foot lakeside house on three acres, for example, was recently offered for $139,000.

Hills O’Brown Realty offered a 40-year-old, 2,100-square-foot home on 40 acres about five miles north of town for $449,000. A 16-year-old, 1,700-square-foot cedar log cabin nestled next to Yellowwood State Forest was offered at $325,000.

Hills O’Brown, the largest real estate firm in the county, had its best year last year, Ms. Zody said, but competing for second homes never leads to bidding wars. Prices have risen in the past year from 3 to 7 percent. “We’ve got a real steady market,” Ms. Zody said. “The boom has passed us by, and the bust has passed us by.”

The popular alternative to buying an existing home is to buy property and build, she said. The average price for an acre in the county, she said, was $6,100 last year, with more exclusive areas, especially near parks, bringing as much as $10,000 an acre.

Lamond Martin, a Brown County builder, said he can build a cabin of hand-hewn logs for between $130 and $150 per square foot of living space. Most homes are between 2,000 and 2,600 square feet.

“There’s a considerable amount of craftsmanship that goes into it,” Mr. Martin said of a log home, which often takes six to nine months to build. “And it looks like the kind of cabins they had here at the turn of the century, when the pioneers first came here. It really takes people back.”